


Time, mystical time

by MishaGO



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Christmas. Kinda?, Endgame Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, LBSC Secret Santa, LBSC Sprint Fic Challenge, Mentioned Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:15:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28120749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MishaGO/pseuds/MishaGO
Summary: Soulmate AU: Everyone is born knowing their soulmate's (future) biggest secret
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 6
Kudos: 83
Collections: LBSCSprintFicChallenge





	Time, mystical time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eat0crow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eat0crow/gifts).



> This is one is written for the LBSC Sprint fic challenge secret santa  
> Surprise Crow! I'm your secret santa, Merry Christmas!  
> I tried to work here with all three prompts: Soulmate AU, Luka knows about Ladybug and Hurt/comfort but I'm not sure I nailed that last one heheh  
> Consider this challenge failed because I ended up adding a lot more writing time and A LOT of editing for this to end up being readable, I really hope you like this! ^^
> 
> And thank you so much to @nonbinarynino for beta reading this on such short notice, you made a magnificent job <3

In this strange world, there was one thing everyone was born knowing. Before knowing the concept of a soulmate, or even a soul itself, people came to the world knowing their soulmate's biggest secret.

The first thing Luka Couffaine knew since he had use of reason, was the fact that his soulmate is (or will be) a hero. But as strange as the world might be, why would heroism be a thing that needs to be hidden? He was seven years old the day he made this question to his mother, which led to a fairly important and quite memorable conversation during which he learned that heroism doesn't necessarily come from guys in latex suits just as seven year old kids read it in comics.

“Ordinary people can be heroes too, Luka,” she told him. “Sometimes all it takes for someone to be a hero is to be kind. You, for starters, are a hero to your little sister and a hero for saving my life everyday I see your face”. Luka was deeply moved by her words and understood that perfectly, what concerned him was the fact that his soulmate would find it necessary to hide that for a lifetime. Why would being a hero be the biggest secret his soulmate held if apparently, there was nothing wrong with it?

Marinette Dupain Cheng had no idea as to what “carrying a heavy burden” meant. Soulmate magic wasn’t exactly the most precise because, well, life wasn’t always the most precise. So whatever it was causing pain to her future soulmate could actually be derived from many problems. If she was naturally kind, the knowledge of her soulmate’s biggest secret made her prepared for the day in which she had to help alleviate some of that burden. What could be so heavy to be held as his biggest secret?

Having a soulmate in this strange world meant many things. Knowing their biggest secret wasn’t the most leading hint as to who would be the one you’d be sharing your life with, after all, anyone could have shoplifting or family issues as their biggest secret, to mention some of the most common ones. It was really normal for people to just ignore it and move on with their lives, most of them forgot the knowledge with which they came into existence just as someone would forget the first words they ever said, some simply carrying it with them to their deathbeds. But not them, both deeply curious about the roads and shapes life could take.

Luka was 16 when Ladybug appeared. Life had gone by and found him in a place of numbness where his life consisted in caring for others. He had no expectation of finding his soulmate anytime soon, or ever, for that matter, but the curiosity was still there. When Paris’ heroes appeared one tragic afternoon, he wondered if maybe his knowledge of the world had been misguided. But even if he was a teenager, he knew his way around the world and an absent father enough to know life rarely worked like fairy tales and fantasy stories, so he ditched the idea. There’s no way either Ladybug or Chat Noir could be his soulmate, he forced the idea out of his head even when new heroes started rolling around, because if any of them were his soulmate, wouldn’t their actual biggest secret be their real identities? But miraculous magic was, also, a strange thing, overpassing humanity and existing since the moment of creation. The priority in the grand scheme of things was still, protecting their secret.

Marinette was 14 when she understood what it was to carry a heavy burden. She met Tikki and with her came Chat Noir. The prospect of destiny arriving at her doorstep and more tangible than the soulmate magic she kept hearing about during her childhood. If she thought about it, it wouldn’t be so far-fetched to think he could be her soulmate, the ladybug and the black cat. But even as being more tangible than her still unknown life partner, it wasn’t as real to her. The fact that he actually was carrying a heavy burden just as her made her doubt sometimes, thinking that maybe she should just let fate be. Confused, she came to assume her soul belonged with Chat Noir, if not now, then someday.

Then Marinette and Luka met each other, and he dared to hope his mother’s definition of hero that fit _so well_ to the kind and giving soul that Marinette was, could actually apply to the only clue the universe had given him about his soulmate; and she dared to defy the future that seemed to be carved in stone for her life.

The first time he met the hero of Paris, there wasn’t anything in particular to look for, but after Silencer and stealing her voice, he realized Marinette had not only been giving every part of her existence to making other people happy but she also turned out to be Ladybug.

Something about the hero’s voice sounded terribly familiar. After being deakumatized, he couldn’t look at her without getting a hazy sight, dizzy head and inability to focus on her face the harder he tried to search for her blue orbs. Something clicked in his head when he closed his eyes and then she was gone, only for Marinette to show up five minutes later running to him in a bone crushing hug.

There was something in the back of his mind that could not assimilate this fact, not because it was impossible (really he couldn’t think of anyone more capable!). It was like a wall of glass distorting the truth of her identity and stopping it from fully sinking in his brain, so he waited, hoping time would help him break down those barriers, after all and as much as he loved her, she was still his friend. He could not trust himself to not be making up signals in a desperate attempt to find his soulmate, but the more time he spent with her, the more convinced he was. He could not trust his sight, but he could trust his hearing, and the music coming off from both girls was the same. He knew it, his soulmate was a hero, in every sense of the word, forced to hide it on behalf of the people she loved the most.

But it seems the oddities of the world only increase with time, and Luka was convinced there was no way the feeling was mutual, after all, wouldn’t he be interfering in some universal plan between Ladybug and Chat Noir? Even if she was his soulmate, there was no guarantee he was Marinette’s soulmate too, and in the middle of her confusion, having to take care of Paris and many new found worries included a new miraculous box, he could not add to the pile of things resting sleep to her nights.

* * *

“Okay, what is wrong with you?”

Luka was pulled out of his haze by Marinette’s voice, where the _hell_ did she come out from?

“What do you mean? I’m just playing music, what are you doing here?”

“Luka you’ve been staring into the wall for the past three minutes with your guitar on your lap, you didn’t even realize I was here!”

“I’m… sorry, I was just thinking about this so...”

“And you’ve also been giving me lame excuses every time I find you like this,” her expression shifted from slightly annoyed to worried. “Is everything ok?” she took a seat in the amp in front of him, hoping it would be harder for him to hide his eyes if they were face to face. “I honestly feel like you’ve been avoiding me. After my breakdown and... and we went for ice cream, and.” She paused, unsure. “Listen I understand if it was too much, I don’t want to be another thing you have to worry about but please just,” a deep sigh. “Tell me what’s going on, don’t leave me hanging like this, it’s almost Cristmas and I really, really miss you”.

Marinette knew Luka could only hold so much with him, they had been getting so close before, reaching the point in conversations at 3 am when sleep makes your mind too heavy and your filter low and the barriers weak. She learned from his subtle complaints about life, how he could not be for everyone and how deeply it hurt him to not have enough of him to give, there was just so much he could do.

The days were getting colder and shorter, his presence was still a much needed beacon in the middle of the shipwreck her life was becoming, but he was not the same and Marinette started worrying.

He interrupted her train of thought. “Marinette, you could never be too much. Even if I’m constantly overwhelmed by my family” he said with a chuckle, trying to downplay it. “Your presence could never burden me” It was the intensity in his eyes, bearing of a fury that only comes with one’s deepest convictions, that made Marinette feel more golden with every passing second.

And she smiled.

She was full on beaming, blinding Luka with the sudden change in mood. “What?” he asked, though he couldn’t repress a smile of his own at the sheer happiness her face was expressing, god he was so _dumb,_ there was nothing that could be more magnificent than that smile.

“You know right?” She said between laughs, surprised this wasn’t the tragic scenario starring in her nightmares where Tikki was taken away from her after someone figured out her identity “you know who I am, you’ve always known!” and everything fell in place in her head “I know your deepest secret too Luka” and she felt at peace.

He was dumbfounded, a mix between happiness and whiplash for the new revelations, he had so much to say to her and she was _still_ laughing.

But they got time.

“You know what? I’m so grateful right now that Rose spends so much time here,” said Luka

“Oh my god, I just revealed to you that we are soulmates and you're talking about Rose?”

“You see, she likes to decorate pretty early for christmas, and well, she has a tendency to take Juleka off guard with these things” he chuckled as he made his way to the door, taking a branch of mistletoe out of the tinsel decorating the hallway, which only made Marinette laugh harder and with a hint of excitement in her voice.

“So your punishment for avoiding me for weeks is a kiss under the mistletoe? no sir I don’t think so” she said as he made his way back to her.

“Sorry, I don’t make the rules. You did say you missed me and mentioned Christmas in the same sentence” He raised the mistletoe over their heads.

“For god’s sake stop talking.” She whispered while taking his face in both of her hands, getting him close to her, and effectively silencing him for a good while.

Yes, they got time, pretty much their whole lives.

And just like that, every obstacle in their path seemed to be cleared up.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a reminder for the rules (which I failed to follow XD). Write for a prompt in up to three 15 minute sprints. No writing outside the sprints until these are completed. After that you have 24 hours to edit (which can include some new writing to smooth transitions, etc). Then post what you’ve got.


End file.
